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Colin Farrell in Talks to Join 'True Detective' Season 2

If a deal ultimately comes together, the film star would be part of a season that is believed to be California-based and revolving around three lead characters.

True Detective is circling a new star.

The Hollywood Reporter has heard from multiple sources that Colin Farrell is in talks to join the anthology series' second season. If a deal ultimately comes together, the film star would be part of a season that is believed to be California-based and revolving around three lead characters. HBO declined comment.

The rumblings come some 24 hours after the critically beloved eight-episode anthology series garnered 12 Emmy nominations, including best drama and best drama actor noms for Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Farrell would bring a similar cache, having spent the past decade-plus lining his résumé with film credits including Seven Psychopaths, Total Recall and Minority Report.

In a Thursday afternoon panel at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo suggested the network likely would be able to share casting information in the next couple of weeks. The exec added that he hasn't felt obligated to hire more A-list stars, noting that when cast, McConaughey wasn't the megastar he became later care of his Oscar-winning turn in Dallas Buyers Club. That said, he did suggest that those brought aboard likely will be well-known actors.

The True Detective format is particularly appealing to film stars in that the work is limited to a single truncated season and offers them strong material and a jolt of buzz and potential awards attention. It is for those reasons that casting rumors have swirled around bold-faced names including Josh Brolin, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Jessica Chastain in recent weeks. For Farrell, this would be a return to the small screen as the CAA-repped actor got his big break in the BBC series Ballykissangel.

In an interview at the Banff TV festival in June, True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto,who writes every episode of his series and is intimately involved in the casting process, opened up about the challenges that come with trying to repeat the breakout success of the drama's first season. Over the course of an hourlong conversation with Community'sDan Harmon, he acknowledged that he tossed out much of his early work on season two, including whole characters, when he realized he was writing toward expectations and criticisms.